And Suddenly
by H.D.Lynn
Summary: Katherine Collins is a normal woman living with her great aunt for the summer in England. The only thing, she doesn't live in what you would call "our" reality, but the one the Pevensies are from.
1. Cats, groceries, estate sales, Oh My!

Chapter 1

We start off on a very normal day in Cambridge, England with, an also, average American girl living with her Great Aunt for a few months. She had thus far lived a normal life with two parents, and five siblings, gone to collage not really knowing what to do with her life and graduated of the same mindset. And like any other girl, when her Aunt in England had offered her a job as a companion, she accepted, after all who didn't want to see the world even if you were working.

But like the rest of the population Katherine was not without her faults; her temper for one, and when she had her mind set it was almost impossible to change it, and her quick tongue which could do as much if not more harm than good and often got her into trouble. But Katherine was not a wicked girl, and tried her best to tame her temper and tongue with some success, she was also one to make few friends but those friendships would last for a life time.

Toward the end of her stay, she headed out into the typical English rain on some errands. The thing that is to shortly occur in our heroine's life is quite far from ordinary, some would call it quite extraordinary if not bizarre. Who could know of the amazing events that would soon find their way to Katherine Collins, and how they would change her life. And contently our story beings with the above mentioned.

'Today I happen to be trudging through mud and rain this _fine_ English afternoon. My Great Aunt Gertrude had asked me; "Could you be a dear Katherine, and pick up a few things for me?" Since Aunt Gerty is 94 years old, I agreed, she would have go herself if I hadn't I would have really gotten it from my dad then. I agreed only to find out what she thought a "few things" were. In her opinion it is a foot long list including brand names, sell by dates, ounces, and preferred grocers… she had way to much time on her hands.'

It had been raining for 6 days straight, but Katherine had been planning to go to an estate sale anyway. With it so conveniently on the way, how could she not go, it was only the next street over in fact. The woman who had lived there had lived well into the hundreds and had kept everything she ever owned in her little house. Along with her many cats… but didn't every town need its cat lady.

'Here it is, on the right. The door was opened by an older lady most likely in her 80's with short white hair and a care worn face.' Kat, that is what all of her close friends called her, smiled and asked the lady what time the sale would be over, which happened to be in 2 hours.

After finding out my time limit I headed directly for the books, for you never know what you will find. While browsing through the small collection, I couldn't help but overhear some local women gossiping quite loudly as they looked over the silverware and china.

"Did ya hear 'bout the old lady who lived hear? I heard that she owned over 20 cats, an' stayed inside after her husband pasted away over 30 years ago."

"Really, I heard it was because of the' deaths of her only son and most of her family in an 'orrible train wreck. But after her husband died she went completely insane and started to think her cats were her lost family. Even had them named after her kin, talked with them and everything."

Kathrine pounded up the stairs eager to leave the gossips behind. In her haste not bothering to worry about her still wet yellow raincoat, the drips tattling of her presence. 'Unthinking people, who wouldn't go a bit crazy after loosing everyone they love, and I'd bet money that she only had about 5 cats, if I was a betting person to start with.

In Kathrine Collin's haste, she didn't relize that she had rushed through the rest of the upstairs, until she found herself in a small spare bedroom. Unlike the other rooms it was spartanly furnished, with only a few pieces it could call its own.

'A bed, desk and chair set, cat, a lamp –wha?! A cat?

Katherine stared into its bright golden eyes. Well at least she knew that the past owner had at least one cat. It had a tawny colored coat, but its eyes were what stood out. They had a wize, understanding look, like someone who had seen many things during their life, the good and bad.

But the cat was hardly the only strange object in the room, directly above the said cat, was a strange painting. A ship sailing right toward the viewer, with a dragonhead on her prow, reminiscing of Viking long boats yet it wasn't the same. She also had a great billowing purple sail, the blue-green sea rushing by as if it were truly moving.

Katherine nearly jumped out of her skin when a sudden weight landed on her feet. Looking down she saw big green eyes surrounded by grey and very fluffy fur. It was about 7 weeks old and very cute like most baby animals. Picking the kitten up, she noticed that the golden one had disappeared as quickly as it had come.

A breeze ruffled the kitten's fur… 'Odd why would the windows be open on such a rainy day?' Kat looked up and saw the single window in the room tightly shut and bolted, only to have another gust rush by her. It was warm and salty, which was also odd since the sea was miles away from Cambridge. Startled she looked into the picture and saw of all things that it was moving. Up and down the great ship went to the motion of the waves, sails billowing in the salty sea winds. In the process of looking at the picture it seemed to have gotten much bigger. It was bigger, and the waves were poring into the room surrounding the confounded girl and cat.

The wind and sea whipped around them in a crescendo, quickly swallowing her knees and waist, as the cold water towed them closer and closer to the frame. And while most people would be thinking of why this was happening, Katherine's last thoughts before being dragged by the waves past the frame were; "This backpack better be water proof!"

~*~

Warning: this is (hopefully) not the usual Narnia fanfic. I'm a die hard fan of the books (though I still like the movies on there own merits) so Caspian is not going to be a dark-haired 20 something, daydreaming over Susan, and while I don't want to quote the book line and verse, I will try to keep its integrity, other than I'm dropping an extra character in. And to clear up any other confusion, Kat is not from our reality but is from the Pevensies, so she has no knowledge of Narnia in the beginning of the story.

Thank you for reading, and please Review


	2. Swimming lessons and laughs

Chapter 2

Katherine hit the water with a loud smack, sinking down before kicking off her water filled rain boots and swam to the agitated surface. While swimming she tried to take her rain coat off. Not and easy thing to do when you have ruff seas, and also have a very wet and _very_ mad kitten on your hands. Thankfully she had been apparently seen by someone on the ship that had suddenly come to life, most likely because of her bright yellow rain slicker. Against the clear blue sea, she had decided it was a sea because the large amount of salt in it, the vivid yellow stood out like a ballerina with a football team, odd comparison, but true.

The sea was quite rough, and by the time the ship was about 200 feet away, her hands and face were blue and numb from the cold. She saw a figure jump off the ship in a very elegant dive, which she would have appreciated more if she wasn't so intent on staying on the surface. The man quickly swam over to her, as those still on the ship scurried around sending down some ropes that the man tied around Kat. After that it was a blur, the rope yanked, and she was soon on the deck a little worse for wear but alive. Slipping into a daze, she wouldn't remember when someone covered her in a warm scratchy blanket, as her rescuer was also pulled up. He was quite tall, over six feet, with sopping wet black hair, and a strong countenance about him.

In the fray were two young children that had a different look to them than the sailors, a boy and a girl. They were both about 12 and 10 years old, and were dressed oddly, they reminded her of the pictures her great aunt had of herself and sibling in the 1930s or 40s. They were obviously not from this place, just like her.

After making that assumption, the cascade of questions and speculation started, "Odd twice in a week, it could be a bad omen, strangers falling out of the sky no good could come from it."

"But the first ones were two of the kings and queens of old, and their kin, what harm could come from them?"

"What I want to know is it a girl or a boy, either way it is dressed strangely, even more so than the king and queen."

Before she could hear anymore of the discussion about herself, a golden haired young man started questioning her in a muddle of words and in a strange accent that was somewhat like an English one, yet different. Unfortunately Kat truly couldn't pay attention long enough to identify it before her legs gave out on her. The kitten had been taken away, and a steaming chalice of some type of cider or wine was contained in. Her hands were shaking so badly from the cold that she nearly dropped and spilled it all over herself, if it hadn't been for the still sopping wet man. He steadied it and held it up to her blue lips for her to drink. If her face wasn't already so blue from the cold it would have been crimson with embarrassment over the whole situation.

After everything that had happened in the last 20 minutes, was undeniably the oddest thing that had ever happened to Katherine Collins. So when she saw a rather large mouse only about two feet in height but most mice are not that tall, and when said mouse started to talk… no one would have blamed her for fainting and faint she did.

~*~

Drinian jumped forward when he saw the young woman's blue face turn white at the sight of Reepicheep. As she slumped forward the goblet fell to the deck, the contents spilling and the ruby red liquid pooled at their feet. Catching her before she could hit the hard deck, Drinian cradled the unconscious woman. She wasn't slight but not overtly heavy either, her height was tall for a woman in Narnia but still quite shorter that himself, her hair was short only coming to her chin, and she wore a bulky yellow type of overcoat made of an odd, smooth material that wasn't like anything he had ever seen.

Within a few short minutes he had carried her into the cabin offered by Caspian. After laying the stranger down, he was shooed out by Lucy, much to his embarrassment and

Thanks that there was another female on board to help out the passed out girl. To think he was being ordered around by a 10 year old, though she was a ten year old who was one of the Queens from the Golden Age, it was still quite strange just like the rest of the day.

~*~

Lucy had quickly gotten the stranger's wet things off and had dressed her in one of the few thick woolen tunics in the cabin; the girl was obviously suffering from hypothermia. Though because of the warm liquids she had drank before passing out, her recovery was extremely likely. Her face was starting to return back to a normal shade already.

What she couldn't wait for the stranger to wake up, she obviously was from Earth, and her raincoat was unmistakable, though she was dressed rather strangely. The women Lucy knew hardly _ever_ wore pants. She was disturbed from her thoughts by a light knock on the door, she opened it to find a dried off Drinian looking somewhat worried and holding the strange knapsack and the grey kitten that had been both brought up with the girl.

It was made of a similar material to the rain coat, but much thicker and heavier, and the now dry kitten leapt away from him and curled up in Lucy's arms. Leaving the bag on the floor not wanting to disturb the still out-cold Kat, though they would find out her name later, Lucy told Drinian that the girl would be fine and that they would just have to wait. But seeing that he was still antsy and in the need of something to do, she asked him to relay the information to Edmund and Caspian, which he did quite quickly. Just then Lucy turned to the girl and saw that she was starting to wake up when the grey kitten pounced heavily onto her stomach.

~*~

Kat saw black. No she was not blind, she still needed to open her eyes, but after such an odd dream all she wanted to do was to stay in bed. She tried to go back to sleep but the swaying of the bed made it very…hard…

Wait a minute… the bed was swaying… _please_ let it be a um… an earthquake!

Yes _please_ let it be a normal freak earthquake in England…that wish was one of the most illogical ones of her life, but since today she had fallen through a picture frame seen a talking mouse, there wasn't much left that could surprise her – **thwack**!

The wind was knocked out of her and her eyes flew wide open as she sat up, only to hit her head to the top of the bunk. Falling back down onto the bed she saw the young girl from before staring at her and the kitten. The look on her face was the last straw, and Kat started snickering at the absurdity of it all, the girl apparently saw the humor in it too and also started to laugh. The door was quickly opened by the younger boy from before along with the golden haired boy, the dark haired man, and another boy about the same age as the first with an extremely annoyed and narcissistic look about him. As the four looked at them both as they were crazy, the girls laughed even harder.

What a day it had been, though Kat would soon find that it was far from over, and that she would never truly be the same or normal Katherine Collins

~*~

**!Important!**

**Hi everyone, I hope you have read my new story out (And Suddenly...) and to include you all I have decided to put up a poll to name the cat that tagged along with Kat. I have already made the nameless kitten a girl, so that is taken care of, but I am stuck on the name coughtalong with many other thingscough so I hope you all can help me out. I have one name but I need some more, so if you see this please give your suggestion in the Reviews of And Suddenly preferably with a review and you can put why you would like that name :) The first five will be in the poll, for everyone to vote on, thanks and have a nice day. **


	3. Enter Kings, a Queen and Mr Scrubb

Chapter 3

Finally controlling their laughter after at least two other outbursts, the two girls settled into a comfortable silence. This is when Katherine felt compelled to introduce herself to her partner in mirth.

"I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Katherine Collins, but everyone I know calls me Kat or Kathy, the whole Katherine bit makes me feel that I'm in trouble or something. As you could probably guess from my clothes I'm not from around here, and I have no idea how I got here either."

"I could tell, you don't dress or talk like anyone I've ever seen in Narnia or England for that matter. I'm Lucy Pevensie," Lucy said with a smile as she held out her hand and Katherine shook the little hand that was offered, but her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at Lucy's comment.

"That is very odd, about the clothing I mean, since I've been living in England with my great-aunt for the summer and I don't think I stood out, other than I'm an American."

Lucy's eyes widened, "That's why you talk so strange! I've never met someone from America before. But I've never seen a woman wearing trousers like yours, aren't they uncomfortable?"

"Hardly, they are very roomy along with being easy to move in. I've never wear a dress when I can wear pants."

Lucy looked quite thoughtful at this remark, the expression on her face making her look much older than her tender age of 10. "Well I don't think I could ever be comfortable wearing pants like you. I prefer dresses myself… Anyway if you're feeling up to it we should go out and I'll introduce you to everyone. They're all wondering if you're well after having been in the sea for so long."

"That sounds fine," Katherine replied, "but before we do that would it be possible to get some shoes? I seem to have misplaced them in the ocean and I have no idea when I'll be getting them back," she said with a twinkle in her eye as she wiggled her bare toes.

Lucy laughed at the silly comment and then pursed her lips in thought, "Well Caspian had some boots he outgrew during the earlier part of their voyage, I'm not sure if they kept them but I think they might fit you, thought he has such big feet…" She opened one of the little closets in the wall rifling around for a few minutes before moving on to the next one. After about five more minutes she declared; "Aha! Here they are," as she triumphantly held a slightly scuffed up pair of brown leather boots.

Tossing them to Kat, she started to put away the little mountain of things she had put on the floor in her search for the boots. Katherine pulled them onto her feet, finding that they were only slightly bigger then she needed and even that was fixed by a pair of thick stocking -like things that Lucy also tossed to her as an afterthought.

Kat watched Lucy as she cleaned up, 'She's a very mature at only 10 years old, much more than I was at that age. Though being tossed into a different world might have something to do with that… Dang! I have _no idea_ where I am, and the only logical way this is possible is if I'm hallucinating, in a coma… or that picture… it must be a portal of some type. But how can this be even possible is this even possible!?'

She was interrupted from her thoughts to see Lucy in the door way as she repeated, "Are you coming Kathy?"

"Oh! I'm coming; sorry Lucy I wasn't paying attention."

~*~

Picking up the kitten Lucy walked out of Caspian's cabin and made sure that Katherine was following this time. Heading for the galley, she was surprised that everyone wasn't still outside the door, but it made sense. They all were most likely embarrassed from getting caught like a bunch of curious school boys. Turning a corner, she looked back again to find Katherine following close behind obviously keeping up so not to get lost.

'Praise Aslan that we got her out in time and that we saw her at all. If we had been heading in even a slightly different direction, we would have never seen her.'

Lucy grew grave at this thought, only to think of her newest friend's quirks. From wearing pants like a man, to how her red hair was cropped so short that it only came to her chin. She could only wonder what the others from Narnia would think.

~*~

Eustace was in a dreadful mood. Hence he believed it was only fitting that everyone else felt worse. And he was willing to do anything to accomplish his goal. But because of the arrival of the half-drowned woman, no one was paying attention to him, not even his jabs about the ship had caused a rise in anyone.

Ever since Lucy had forced him to take that horrid potion for his seasickness, which he had to admit had helped _slightly_, he had felt so much better that he had demanded that he be put ashore instantly. Oblivious to the fact that nothing but water surrounded the ship for as far as the eye could see, though many of the men on the Dawn Treader would have gladly tossed Eustace in the sea, regardless is there was land or not. The only thing keeping them doing the deed was because he was of relation to their majesties King Edmund and Queen Lucy.

'Blasted boat won't stop pitching back and forth, it's little more than the size of a lifeboat! And that pompous Captain Brinian or Frinian or whatever his name is, he acts as if it was the Queen Mary even after I took the time to try to explain what a real ship is like.' Eustace let out a loud huff and was miffed when no one even glanced his way. 'Look at them all, so concerned over a partially drowned stranger, I'd bet they weren't half this worried when I became so deathly sick,' Eustace felt a small prick of what was left of his conscience but he shoved it back down with more self pity. 'I hope that Lucy gave her some of that beastly stuff that she forced me to take.'

~*~

Katherine walked in a zigzag pattern, not yet use to the swaying of the ship.

'I must look like a drunk,' Kat thought as she slammed into a wall for the third time, 'I clearly need to get my sea legs and quick or I'm going to become a giant walking bruise, who knows how long I'm going to be on this ship.'

She had become lost after the second turn, and made a mental note to ask Lucy how to get back, which she would most likely forget to do anyway. She stepped out of the hall way into a well lit galley area. All the people who had been at the door earlier were sitting or standing throughout the room, with the only exception being her dark-haired rescuer. The blond youth from before jumped to his feet and gave an elegant bow that left Kat wanting to curtsy back if she only knew how, though since she wasn't wearing a dress the effect would have been lost anyway. Obviously use to starting conversations the young man plunged right in.

"My ladies! I see that our guest has recovered quite well thanks to your ministrations Lucy." He paused, waiting for Lucy to do the introductions; it took a few seconds for her to realize this.

"Oh! Right, this is Katherine Collins. Kathy this is King Caspian the 10th of Narnia."

"A pleasure Lady Katherine, as you are Queen Lucy's friend feel free to just call me Caspian as I get 'Your Majesty' all too often."

"Thank you, Caspian. You and everyone else can feel free to call me Kat or Kathy, since only my mother calls me Katherine and then only when I'm in trouble."

Lucy quickly continued. "This is my brother Edmund, but we all call him Ed." The boy with dark hair nodded in response, Kat could see him seizing her up. "And this is our cousin Eustace, the mouse-haired boy glared in response. "Drinian was called up to handle things on deck; he was the one who rescued you. He wanted to meet you as soon as possible but his duties as captain called him away before we got here."

Feeling her duties were completed, Lucy turned to her brother and said; "Ed you won't believe this. But I think that Kathy is from our world!"

This statement caught everyone by surprise, even the cantankerous boy named Eustace looked up.

~*~

Hi everyone I'm finally back 

I hope you all liked this latest chapter, please Review.


	4. Quarrels and Discussions

Chapter 4

Katherine looked sheepishly at the others in the room and agreed with Lucy.

"From what I can tell it seems that way, but it's almost like we are from different times. The old people I've seen with clothes like you three are in my history books and in the old pictures my great-aunt has of her family in the 1930's and 40's."

Edmund looked even more perturbed at this comment. "Do you mean to say that you don't live in the year 1941?"

"Of course not, its 2009 where I come from?"

"That's impossible!" Eustace said with a sneer, "If you think you're from the year 2009 you should have been locked up in a funny farm ages ago."

Katherine's temper flared, "Oh? That's too bad since apparently falling into another world is also impossible! I guess you'll have to keep me company in the "_funny farm_" as you call it," her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Well I never!" Eustace sputtered, "I have never met such an out spoken and loud mouthed woman in my life!"

"Well I have never met such a cross boy, so completely disrespectful of his elders! And if you are going to try to insult me please _try _not to repeat everything just with different words, you _sexist, chauvinist _child!"

"Well at least I'm from civilized England; Irish-American's are so uncouth." While Eustace had only been looking for another come back, he shrunk back in cowardly fear at the anger radiating from Katherine at this last comment.

Katherine would have pummeled the kid if Lucy hadn't stepped in. "Please let's not fight! I'm sure that there is an explanation for all this confusion."

"Lu is right," said Edmund, he himself still shaken up from witnessing such a war of words. "We all need to calm down if we are going to figure this out."

Their words slapped Katherine in the face, making her realize just how childishly she had been behaving. She sighed and knew that she would have to start making apologies to the kind people who had taken her in… 'And that stinker' she thought reluctantly.

She took a deep and when right into it. "I'm sorry everyone I shouldn't have acted so childishly, I've always had problems with my temper but that is no excuse." Caspian looked ready to interject otherwise, Katherine raised her hand to silence him "Thank you Caspian but no, I should have acted more mature, I would have been ashamed if my mother knew about my outburst. So I want to ask all of you an apology of forcing that uncomfortable scene on you all." The three all quickly accepted her apology saying that they too had those types of days.

Squaring her shoulders she turned to face the sulking boy in the corner, and walked over to him cursing her conscience along the way. Even when she stood right in front of him he didn't look at her, so she just started.

"Eustace… I'm sorry that I lost my temper with you. I shouldn't have acted that way, since we are going through the same things. I had no right to take out on you… I'm not saying that I take my opinions back. But I ask if you could forgive me for who I acted to you. For young people only learn how to act from their elders and I wasn't a good example to you."

Silence filled the room as Katherine finished her speech, if a pin had been dropped in the hall it would have sounded as loud as a gunshot. She had given up hope and started to turn around when she almost missed the mumble that came from Eustace that sounded like a forced; "Rye… morgive yew".

Katherine decided to translate this jumble as 'I forgive you", since Eustace was most likely not talking about trees or types of wheat. Eustace rushed from the room and no one saw him till supper that evening, though it could be said that his little black notebook got the brunt of his griping and wining, at least for today.

~*~

Rynelf let out a breath of relief. Eustace had almost caught him snooping on their majesties and the stranger Katherine's conversation. He hurried back up to the deck his mind still spinning with the heated argument and the subsequent apology. He felt a certain liking for the lady Katherine not only because of how she had stood up and given a piece of her mind to Eustace, she also had a sharp wit to go with her temper, though he still wasn't quite sure what a "funny farm" was. Maybe Neathan would know, he was one of the more learned types on this ship.

~*~

"Her name is Katherine Collins", Rhince said to Drinian as he steered the ship as he told his Captain of the latest on ship gossip. "Apparently after being introduced to the Kings and Queen, it was figur'd out that their majesties, Edmund and Lucy and their kinsman, hail from the same world as the Lady Katherine of all things. Shortly after that Eustace insulted her, the Lady Katherine that is, saying she should be a "funny farm" over a comment that she made…"

Rhince paused, "I don't rightly know what a funny farm is Captain. Do you?"

Drinian shrugged, he was as clueless as his first mate.

So the story continued, "Well whatever he meant by that the Lady Katherine got really insulted and angered and said that he would have to join her there. Apparently they bicker on for awhile or so when Eustace insinuated that he was more civilized than an I-rest Amerifan." Rhince looked befuddled at this last part and shrugged continuing on, "they have the strangest words were they come from… I don't know what that means either."

Shrugging he continued on, "But any way, the Lady Katherine got riled by this, took it real personal I heard, and if looks could kill that boy should be at the bottom of the sea. But the gentle Queen Lucy stepped in and made peace between the two, and then the Lady Katherine was so embarrassed and ashamed of her actions that she asked everyone's, including Eustace, pardon!"

"Most the men on this ship would be only glad to protect the lady's honor, even though who slandered her only helps that factor of this issue."

Drinian interrupted before his first mate could continue on about "Lady Katherine", "Could you get the astrolabe Rhince? I want to double check our heading."

He received a quick "Ai Ai, Captain," and was left to his own thoughts. 'Her name is Katherine, Katherine Collins," he wanted to test the name out loud but Rhince sprung back with the astrolabe interrupting him before he had the chance. "So do you think we will still make The Lone Islands in about two days?" "I find it a believable possibility Rhince, with how the winds are in our favor."

"Well if you are all set up here Captain, I think I'll go down for the evening meal."

Again Drinian was left to his thoughts. 'Katherine Collins, she has a temper to match her hair the grace to know when she is in the wrong and admit it. And she has the ability to make half of my crew fall in love with or what to protect her, before they've even met her! Before I even met her… To think that I her rescuer would be apparently the last person on this ship to know these things. Even Reepicheep knew before me for he was the one to tell Rhince!'

He ran his hand through his hair which he often did when miffed, nervous, clueless or embarrassed (his mother had told him countless times, jokingly, that if he didn't stop he would go bald on only that spot). Right now he was mainly miffed; he hated being the last to find out anything. 'With how things are going I'll get down for dinner, and only find out she just left.'

He wasn't that far off in his guess.

~*~

Katherine sat beside Lucy in the cabin from before. Lucy had thought it best that she not meet so many people when she was still weak from her little dip in the sea. Before leaving she had talked mainly with Edmund and they both came to the most logical way that this was possible was if they were from different times of the same world. She still hadn't truly let herself think of herself of being in an entirely different world. All that she had accepted about her world had been torn in two, and to cope with the impossible becoming suddenly becoming possible, she chose to ignore it. She was again brought out of her reverie by Lucy, who had been quite taken with the kitten.

"Does she have a name Kathy?"

"Not that I know, she was in the room when I went through the portal. If you want to name her you can."

"I couldn't, you're the one who brought her and kept her alive when you were in the sea," Lucy said with conviction, "You should be the one to name her."

Katherine looked at the silver-grey kitten, as she thought for a few minutes.

"Miss T," she said her name is Miss T."

"Misty?"

Katherine laughed, "No not Misty, since she is a girl she is a Miss, and to play off of that her name is T as in the letter."

"That is clever, but you'll always have to explain it to everyone else."

Katherine shrugged, "That's true but I've always liked naming all of my pets name that are ironic. I have a white cat named shadow, a black cat named snowball, and when I was young I had a dog named Kitty. It was always so funny when visitors would come over, I would call out Here Kitty, and when this large dog came bounding towards us, the looks on their faces where always priceless."

They girls both giggled at Katherine's comment and soon settled down and started getting ready for bed. After snuggling in the blankets that she had been given, Katherine remembered one of the comments that Caspian had made that had caught her interest.

"Lucy…are you still awake?" she whispered.

"Wide awake, Kathy. Why?"

"I was wondering. What Caspian meant when he said that you and your brother Edmund were a king and a queen?"

~*~

Hi ya'll! As you might have seen (if you've read the book) that there are some names in here that you've never heard of in the book. This is mainly because C.S. Lewis just named a few of the many of the sailors on the Dawn Treader. So to use more sailors I can't just say; Rynelf, Rhince and sailors 1, 2 and 3. I'm giving some of them names that sound somewhat Narnian (at least to me)!

I had Rhince's slaughtered quotes in there mainly because no Narnian had ever heard of an Irish American let alone say it, and with gossip often like the game telephone, things are bound to get messed up.

And our word of the day boys and girls is **astrolabe**; _an instrument used from navigation by observing the position and altitude of the Sun or other astronomical objects._

I have no idea if they had these in Narnia, but it is the only thing that I knew of that they used for sailing.

~Please Review~


	5. Stories and Roast Chicken

Chapter 5

Lucy looked surprised at Kathy's question, and then chuckled to herself.

"No I guess that was not explained in the least to you, know was it." She stated.

"Not really. It is an area of confusion for me since no one has thought to enlighten me about the subject."

"Well it is a rather long story, though I will try my best to shorten it," and with one more breathe Lucy dove into the story.

"It all began when we, my brothers Peter and Edmund my sister Susan and I, were sent to the countryside because of the blitz. We were taken in by a Professor Kirke, though we didn't know him at the time, and stayed with him, his housekeeper Mrs. Macready and the maids, Ivy, Margaret and Betty. Well anyway one day it had been raining and we had nothing to do so we played a game of hide and seek, and my hiding place was in a large wardrobe. When I went into the wardrobe I found that it was full to the brim with wonderful fur coats."

Lucy sighed at the thought, "I love fur coats, and because of that I entered even farther into the wardrobe. The farther I went the more coats there seemed to be when all of the sudden I found myself in the midst of trees covered in a blanket of snow and ice. I walked in the woods and found a lantern post and met a faun named Mr. Tumnus."

Katherine interrupted at this point, "Wait a minute! A faun? I thought that fauns were mythological, it doesn't seem possible."

"Just about as possible as talking animals isn't it?" Lucy responded with a smirk. Kathy had to agree.

"Back to my story, we went to his house and had tea. And Mr. Tumnus told me that he had been under orders of the white witch to turn over any humans that he found to her. But he had become remorseful and took me back to the lantern post…"

Lucy continued with her story well in the night, as she told the story of how four children became kings and queens of a otherworldly land, when they disappeared back to their home world and how they came back to help Caspian. It was well into the early hours of morning when they had finished their talk and they finally given into the dark embrace of sleep.

~*~

When the girls finally got up in the morning and ate breakfast in an empty galley, as they were finishing up they heard a commotion on deck and after cleaning up after themselves they rushed to see what was happening. It was a sight to remember. Eustace had for some unknown reason had thought it would be a good idea to start swinging the mouse Reepicheep by the mouse's own tail. Needless to say the noble creature was extremely put out and had promptly challenged the boy to a duel that was narrowly escaped by Eustace by giving a very grudging apology.

Lucy had gone down to bandage Eustace's hand, and had left Katherine on deck watching the efficiency of the sailors at work and trying to stay out of their way. She soon found herself near the Forecastle looking out over the blue wakes that had almost taken her life, when one of the sailors named Rhince came up to her and reintroduced himself to her.

"Lady Katherine, I was wondering if you would like a tour of our lovely ship The Dawn Treader."

Katherine smiled good-naturedly and replied, "I would love to, but only if you don't call me "Lady Katherine" makes me feel old and stuffy. Just Katherine or Kat is fine with me."

"As you wish Katherine, let us start from the bottom and go up." And the pair set off on their little adventure arm in arm.

~*~

Drinian looked out over the Dawn Treader, after the incident that had been caused by Eustace earlier that morning. Other than that small disturbance the day had gone quite smoothly, until he noticed that his first mate Rhince had disappeared. Drinian quickly glanced over the deck and didn't see his absent first mate. Grunting with displeasure he stalked down from the poop deck and headed down the stairs into the hold, where he was told that he had just missed Rhince and the Lady Katherine, and that they had gone above deck again. By this time Drinian had started to loss his patience and was somewhat, okay he was, in a bad mood. He didn't have time for his first mate to be running off and flirting with the woman they had picked up.

The other sailors knew to stay out of the way as Drinian stalked past them, it was if a dark cloud was over him and everyone knew to stay out of the way. The only times they had seen their captain like this, was when someone left some papers and maps unattended and the cabin with the window open. Needless to say those papers all had to be replaced when they stopped at the island of Galma. And there was the time when the sextant's metal measuring arc had been bent; it had been almost like Drinian had gone into grieving for the instrument.

Needless to say Drinian took his position of captain very seriously and he didn't always see eye to eye with those who didn't. He and other men like him were the reason ships are always referred to as "she's" for they fell in love with their ships quite literally. But that is beside the point.

~*~

Katherine knelt by the chicken coop on the deck by Rhince as he talked about his passion for roast chicken. Fortunately for the chickens they were far more useful as laying hens then as dinner. Suddenly the crew grew rather silent as pair of booted feet treading heavily on the deck towards the pair. They both looked up to see a rather angry man. Rhince knew at once what the problem was and tried to unsuccessfully smooth over the situation.

"Captain!" He said in an excessively cheerful tone. "I was talking to Lady Katherine about our wonderful chickens; she was saying how she also has a passion for roast chicken like myself." Drinian glared in response, not making a sound. Rhince bravely continued on, "You might to talk to Reepicheep also, for he nearly ran though Gaitto when he made a comment that Reepicheep took as impugning her Ladyship's honor.

Drinian spoke barely containing his anger; "Rhince I can't have you going off and flirting with everything that is wearing a skirt, I need you for navigation right now!"

Rhince followed sheepishly after his angry captain, but not after making an eloquent bow to Kat before making his hasty exit.

They both left a rather embarrassed and perturbed Kat in their wake. Wondering what she had done to make the situation so heated.

~*~

Rhince and Drinian had been working for a few minutes in silence when Rhince shattered that said silence.

"She isn't wearing a skirt." He smirked at the look of realization and embarrassment on the young captain's face as a slight blush colored his tanned features when he realized how rude he had been towards the Lady Katherine.

~*~

I'm back! Sorry for my tardiness, and the odd wording of this chapter. I have recently been introduced to the book The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. It is slightly affecting my writing style; however it is still I whom speak to you all. *delicate royal wave*

Our word today is sextant_: it is an instrument generally used to measure the altitude of a celestial object above the horizon._

Try using this word in normal conversations sometime just to see their faces.


	6. Pirates vs Ninja Skills

Chapter 6

Katherine had still kneeling by the chicken coop when Lucy found her about five minutes later. She didn't ask what had happened, but the older woman soon became her normal self again. And they chattered together for the rest of the evening until they retired to bed.

~*~

The next morning the ship was abuzz with talking and general chores, the men were all waiting in anticipation for when they would arrive at the Lone Islands, which was to be within an hour. But this went largely unnoticed by Kat for she had the love of her life back, her blue jeans. Lucy had giggled at her reunion with her beloved pants, while many of the sailors had given a second glance at a woman in trousers only to shake their heads and continue on with their daily duties. Katherine was soon roused from her daydreams of pants, when she saw Lucy half leading and half dragging the man from the night before towards her.

She now saw that he was the same man who had saved her, and thankfully he was apparently not angry from their last encounter. In fact he looked somewhat embarrassed, which was probably why Lucy had to drag him over. Their meeting was rather awkward.

"Kathy!" Lucy began with a look of extreme satisfaction on her beaming face. "I finally found your rescuer; Captain Drinian is in rather high demand here and I was only just was able to pry him from his duties long enough to meet you."

There was a drawn out silence, with Drinian apprehensively breaking it. "You will forgive me my lady for the previous night's events; I was overtaken by my foal mood and acted in a very ungentlemanly manner towards you."

Kat smiled "It is gladly given, (Authors note:…sorry still reading The Scarlet Pimpernel and it is still affecting my writing) I am rather relived that I am hardly the only one here with a temper, and as for me being a lady I have heard much worse with no apology like yours."

Drinian's shoulders became obviously lighter as he bowed and turned back to someone calling for him.

~*~

Not that long afterwards the lookout at the bows of the ship cried "Land in sight!" and everyone rushed to the forecastle to watch the green land of the island Felimath come into view along with her grey sister Doorn. Kat half listened to the younger peoples conversation about the history of the Lone Islands as Lucy remarked how both of the islands had changed so little since she and her brother had last visited about one thousand three hundred years earlier, give or take a few decades.

The men almost decided to overpass the lonely Felimath when Lucy spoke up. "I'm sorry we're not to land on poor little Felimath, I remember walking there so long ago. It was so quiet with the salt grass and clover waving in the soft sea winds." They were all moved by her quant little speech, "I wouldn't mind stretching my legs there, for you put it so eloquently Lucy. Shall we not go ashore and walk the length of the island and have the Dawn Treader pick us up on the other side?" Everyone soon agreed with Caspian, even Eustace did, though his reasons were purely his own. "Anything to get off this blasted boat!"

This little snub at the _Dawn Treader_ was taken rather hard by Drinian. "Blasted!? What are you insinuating sir!" Eustace smirked at the rise he had caused to come from the Captain, "Only that a civilized ship is so big that one doesn't feel like they are at sea at all." Caspian tried to smooth over the situation quickly as he laughed rather forcedly, "What is the point of sailing then, you might as well just stay ashore. Will you not lower the boat for everyone who wishes to embark on this little adventure, Drinian?"

Drinian took Caspian's lead and soon The King, the two Penvensies, Eustace, the Mouse and Kat had all been put into the little rowboat and were on their merry way. The only other disturbance was when Drinian said in passing that it might not be wise for the lady Katherine to join the little group of adventures, on account of her delicate health. Needless to say Kat didn't see it in the same light that he did.

"So just because I'm a woman means I have to be of weak constitution?" Katherine asked slyly. "No I just thought that because of the recent events that have happened to you that you might be tired from it all and would not want to embark with the others. It had nothing to do with you being a woman." Kat smirked, "Well you should have just asked me how I was feeling to begin with, instead of just assuming. But now that we have that taken care of that, I will go along with them." Kat paused and then added,"And you can babysit Miss. T for me, while were gone. Can't have her getting lost now can we." She smiled in a semi evil fashion and in an instant was in the row boat before Drinian could act. He stood on the deck flabbergasted as she waved with a smirk as the boat slowly made its way to shore.

The ride was smooth and they marveled how small the Dawn Treader looked from the shore. And the children all soon made their merry way up a low and steep hill, with Kat following at the rear as she laughed at their antics. Dragging her feet in the warm sand she waved the reluctant Caspian and Edmund ahead. Smiling she said to herself "You would think _I _was the child with how everyone acts around here."

~*~

Drinian watched unobtrusively as Katherine slowly made her way over the beach boots in hand and up the low hill. As she disappeared from sight he had a sudden feeling of foreboding in the air, he shook it off and made his way to the helm. In about five minutes and thirty-nine seconds he would find that something small and grey had been sharpening their claws on his personal positions, we'll just say that the tunic lost that fight.

~*~

Katherine made her way from the beach finally topped the hill that everyone else had disappeared over, only to see an odd sight as she replaced her shoes. There were about 6 or 7 men, who where seaming talking to Caspian in a friendly fashion, she was about half way down into the little green valley when the leader of the strangers nodded to his men. The madness began, one man, who was tall and skinny, broke off from the main group running like the dickens towards Kat, while the rest of them proceeded to efficiently capture the others in Kat's party.

At this point of the story many heroes and or heroines would go directly to try and save everyone, using their mad ninja skills or some other nonsense. Katherine Collins did not possess said mad ninja fighting powers so she did the next best thing. Run as fast as she could, in the other direction. While Kat was never been the fastest person on her school track team, she could hardly be called the slowest either. Most days she could out run the majority of people; unfortunately today her pursuer was quite a bit faster that she was. The man tried to grab her arm but in the end had he to tackle Kat to stop her. And promptly began to drag her back to the rest of the slave traders. But even then she didn't give in easily. Kat yowled at him as she tried, unsuccessfully, to get away. By the time he had her back he had acquired many nasty scratches. He dumped her on the ground to the bawdy laughter of the band of kidnappers.

After being bound by a rope that tied all five of the humans together, the main leader was completely taken in by Reepicheep. They had never seen a talking animal before, and the main thing on their greedy little minds was money if only Eustace could keep his mouth shut.

"This is inconceivable!" Eustace sputtered. "I demand that you take me to the local British Consul immediately."

The band of men looked confused for a second before breaking into laughter at the gall of the boy to demand to be taken anywhere.

Before Eustace could go further into his tirade Kat quietly shushed him saying. "Shush Eustace! Do you really this world will have a British anything here? Be quiet or these slavers will make sure that you be quiet." For once Eustace did shut up. But Reepicheep made up for it. The noble beast was extremely indignant over the whole situation and didn't stop talking. Fortunately for the mouse the leader was quite taken with his "extraordinary" talent, but after Reepicheep had exhausted his voice the party traveled in relative silence until they reached the shore. There was a small village and moored off the shoreline was a dirty unkempt looking ship that was obviously their present destination.

"Now my pretties," said the slave trader, "Let's have no fussin' and there will be nothin' to cry about now. Everyone aboard"

~*~

Hope that I'm not scaring you all with the increase of my output, it's not like I have only 3 months to live or anything like that. It's just that my roommate got a hold of my fanfictions and has become my biggest fan, critic, and editor all in one day… and she has been incessantly bugging me for the next chapters, so thank her, she has also been started reviewing the chapters, so (hopefully) there will be less errors, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

**Kirsten Erin**: I didn't realize that (about the whole Kat and cat thing) until you pointed it out. Thanks for the note, I happen to love Drinian's character also, and I will be hopefully looking over my old chapters sometime soon to make corrections.

**Eustacegirl**: Sorry to disappoint but I didn't originally plan on Eustace having any romance in the story. Also I made Katherine 24 years old and since Eustace is only 9 or 10… that could get rather awkward quick. Personally I'm a Eustace and Jill supporter, so I'll most likely give Eustace and Katherine more of a sibling relationship. Thanks for the input though


	7. An American Abolitionist

Chapter 7

Just before the children, Katherine, and Reepicheep were put onto the long-boat, a well groomed man with a well kept beard came out of one of the houses and started conversing with the leader of the pirate band.

"Well Pug, more of your usual goods? The pirate named Pug bowed very low to the man, exposing the balding and shiny top of his as his greasy black hair bobbed at the forward motion. He looked rather comical and it was amazing that he was able to keep himself upright at the apparent unbalance that the bow left him in, especially factoring in his considerable girth.

He talked to the gentleman in a honeyed tone. "Why yes your lordship, always the best when you buy from ol' Pug." The unnamed man ignored Pug's ramblings, "How much for that one." He waved toward Caspian with his hand as Pug beamed at the prospect of a sale. "Well my lordship could always tell which ones are the best, no one could try to sell anything second rate to you my lord. That boy, well I've grown rather fond of him myself. Tender hearted man I am, never should have taken up this line of work. But you being such an honorable man my lordship…" The man had enough of Pug's flowery lies; "Tell me your price, pirate! I will have no more of the rigmarole of your tainted trade!"

Pug sobered up rather quickly not wanting to lose a sale; "Well my lord for you three hundred crescents for the boy." "I'll give you one hundred and fifty." Lucy sobbed at the thought of being separated; "Please sir! Don't separate us whatever you will do. You don't know-" Katherine stopped Lucy before she could get out another word, putting her tied hands on the young girl's shoulder. 'It wouldn't be wise to announce to everyone just who Caspian is at this moment' she thought to herself as the man tried to calm Lucy down himself. "I will pay no more than one hundred and fifty, and you little maiden I am sorry that I cannot buy you all." Turning away he said; "Untie my boy Pug. And treat those others well or it will be on your head." Pug looked indignant, "Who ever heard of a gentleman in my business who treated his stock better than me?! Why, I treat 'em like my own children!" "I wouldn't be surprised if that were true," said the other grimly.

Finally the moment of separation had come as Caspian was untied by one of the grimy men. Lucy burst into tears while Edmund had a blank look, and Kat was very grim indeed. Caspian looked over his shoulder and tried to be as cheerful as possible. "Cheer up. It will all work out all right in the end." With that Caspian was gone, and the others were put on the boat with extreme swiftness. Lucy's quiet crying was soon chided by the "caring" Pug. "Now there, missy! Don't be going and ruining your looks for the market tomorrow. You be a good girl and then you won't have nothin' to cry about."

Soon after Lucy stopped her crying, Kat almost started to cry herself. The ship was a floating cage. They were taken below, into a long and dark hold that was hardly clean. They were not the only ones that Pug and his gang had captured; there were many Galmians and Terebinthians and others from smaller islands. Locked in this living nightmare, they could only hope that Caspian could get to the ship somehow…and that Eustace would stop talking.

~*~

After about half an hour of Eustace's complaints Kat was fed up. "Eustace Scrubb, if you don't stop complaining right now you are going to be very sorry you didn't! He shut up, which was a minor miracle in itself, but the other people in the hold glaring at him might have helped somewhat. The long night dragged on, the hours slowly creeping by like a snail on cement, it was only a few hours after sunrise when the ship docked into a harbor and the crew went about their duties. Smoothing Lucy's hair out of the young girl's eyes, Kat blinked languidly in the half-light as she shifted trying to keep from waking the sleeping child in her lap. Her actions went unheeded when the door to the stairs was thrown open with a flourish by a figure outlined in the bright light outside.

Outside Katherine could hear Pug coarsely yelling to the man at the top of the stairway. "Only pretty girls 16 to 25 or so, you me hear Tacks! This gentleman doesn't what any children." Immediately assessing the situation Kat flew into a silent panic, 'If he only wants girls there isn't to many lines of work for a slave in that type of situation.'

Taking action she rumpled her hair and clothes hunched over and turned from the walkway hoping to not be noticed. Tacks walked heavily on the boards and began sending girls up the stairs and into the light. He moved closer and closer every moment and Kat froze as he passed by, as he turned and herded up the last of the girls Kat let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in as the door closed again.

~*~

Above deck Pug was simpering unashamedly to a Calormen trader wearing a long billowing robe with a brightly colored turban of orange. His face was brown and weathered from the sea and desert, prideful dark eyes, and his upper lip was the proud owner of a well waxed mustache the ends curling toward the sky completely defying gravity. His sharp eyes flicked over the line of pale and scared women in front of him finding every little fault. He turned back to the pirate and with six short words deflated Pug's mood instantly; "I don't see the red-haired one."

~*~

Pug fumed as he stomped down the stairs cursing that lazy Tacks the whole way down as the boards creaked in protest under his weight. 'I know Tacks isn't the sharpest knife in the lot, but to think he would forget about the one red haired woman in their care!' This was mind boggling to the pirate. He made quick work of finding her and he roughly grabbed the red headed girl and dragged her up the stairs and onto the deck.

Needless to say Kat was not a happy camper. She clawed and fought the entire way up the rickety stairs as the rest of the people below watched in a mixture of interest and horror. Unconsciously she began to yell out the beginnings of the Gettysburg Address that she didn't even realize she had memorized until that point.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers b**rought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal!" (Authors note: At this point the majority of the pirates thought Katherine to be rather insane, the only ones who really slightly understood her mad speech were Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace. It might be noted that even Eustace was impressed with her knowledge of American historical speeches, but then again they hadn't heard the half of it. Back to Kat) "And I **hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal! And women at that! With certain unalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness!" (Authors note 2: at this point Pug is trying desperately trying to salvage the entire situation and Kat lost children here) "More to the point because I am an American and Abolitionist! Therefore you are denying me my constitutional rights by trying to sell me into slavery against my will! You would be well advised to remove your hands from my personage if you don't desire to be _nuked_ by my country by the morrow and there will be a chicken in every stew pot!"

At this point in time Pug had been finally able to silence her by clamping his sweaty fat hand over her jabbering mouth. He smiled and was about to open his own mouth with a humorous remark when Katherine found herself well and able to bite down onto one of the chubby fingers silencing her. Which Katherine did quite promptly, Pug instead let out a screech of epic proportions that would be remembered for many years to come, as he snatched his hand away, Kat spit out any hint of the nasty taste that his hand had left in her mouth.

In a fit of rage Pug raised his uninjured hand to strike Katherine, and was only stopped by the silent Calormen who said; "I'll take her."

~*~

WARNING: My roommate and I had a sudden dose of reality and brilliance this weekend that _completely_ changes the end of this story and its planned sequel. The whole general idea of the story is going intact it just doesn't end the way I thought it would. I will apologize for any inconsistencies that may occur because of this mid-story change (No I'm not telling, you're all just going to have to wait).

Thank you and hope you enjoyed this chapter.

PS. Drinian will still be awesome!!!

PPS. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and the president who was the one who talked about the chicken stuff, Kat's insane speech just wouldn't have been the same without you guys.


	8. The Fifth Wife

Chapter 8

Both Pug and Katherine looked at the Calormen like he was insane. He continued on as if his previous statement had been about the weather. "Will one hundred crescents be sufficient?" Pug was still in a daze that any fool would even consider buying the witch that had been dragged from the dank and dark hold of his ship. "Fine then you drive a hard bargain good sir, seventy crescents it is and the same for those two dark-haired Terebinthians on the end and not a crescent more. The pirate was still struck mute by the series of recent events, and the man in the orange turban took advantage of the situation rather completely, like he had done this before.

Taking the still gaping Katherine's wrist the Calormen swept by Pug as he waved over one of his lackeys with a sharp motion. "You can get your fifty from my man," he paused and then continued, "Well since it is three girls it would be one hundred then." Pug only really hearing the last number and readily agreed only to realize that he had been played.

The robed man led Kat over the gangplank and onto the wooden docks as his man payed the now annoyed pirate and took care of the other two girls. They passed many other ships docked at the pier, the air was a mixture of the salty ocean, foreign spices, fish and the foul odors emanating from the many slave ships. She stared wide-eyed at the masses people moving about all with their own tasks to do. Katherine was soon led to an elegant looking ship that had been painted a garish red. She had many oars, her bow curved up and then inward like the turban man's moustache, and the deck was crowned with a triangular sail of golden yellow.

The tall man hadn't said a word to Kat during their walk down the pier and led her up the narrow gangplank onto the red ship. He took her into a well lit cabin and said; "Change into those clothes on the bed; we will burn those filthy ones." And without another word he swept out of the door way and locked the door with a sharp *click* and left her by herself. Katherine's wide grey eyes looked around the cabin but didn't really retain anything. She broke the silence talking to herself; "What in the world just happened?!"

~*~

It was about two hours later and Kat was fuming. She had already gone through her denial/shock period, and then came her outburst of rage that the room had taken the main brunt, and now she just sat on the floor, in her own clothes, glaring at the door. Katherine had been at this for about twenty minutes already and could have gone on much longer if the door hadn't opened.

The man with the orange turban came in, for an instant he looked surprised at seeing the death glare coming from the woman sitting on the floor, but he only tisked at her when he saw that she had refused to change into the clean clothes. Pulling Kat to her feet firmly he started to give her the first information that she had gotten since she had been locked in the room. "You would have done well to change before your new master sees you." Kat looked up surprised, "You're not my owner?" "No girl, I am merely his advisor one such things and he often sends me out on my own."

As they both walked up down the dimly lit hallway Katherine could hear a rather loud voice laughing at some unheard joke. As they entered the another room of the ship Kat got a glimpse of a tall man before turban man forced her head down in a bow. She heard a deep melodic voice say; "Well Kader, you real have a way with picking them don't you."

The man with the orange turban, whose name was apparently Kader, replied modestly. "I only try to please you my lord." Kat struggled to look up but Kader still had a heavy hand on her head, unable to move she heard a pair of booted feet crossed the room and saw those same boots near her own person. She felt a large warm hand cup her chin as Kader's hand disappeared from her head as the other one made her look up into the man's face. He was in his late thirties or early forties and his features were rather ruggedly handsome. His hair was a black that had started to grey at his temples; warm brown eyes that had many laugh lines, and a roman nose that was well set in his darkly tanned face.

"Yes, yes. Kader, you did very well." The Tarkaan said as he turned Katherine's face this way and that with marked pleasure written on his own face. "Though I do believe that she will clean up well especially after her magnificent hair grows out."

Katherine had finally had enough and forcefully pushed the tarkaan's hand away from her face with some force; with a hissed "Don't touch me!" Only to be surpriseed as he tilted his head back and started to laugh heartily at her actions. "Such spirit it matches match her hair! What is your name fair maiden, for I must know it!" Still slightly shocked that she hadn't been reprimanded Katherine unconsciously answered him mumbling. "K-at."

"Khat!" his eyes shown, "What a fair name for such a fair and unique maid." Turning away from her he started to talk Kader as if she wasn't in the room. "Kader please take Khat back to her cabin and have her cleaned up and put into proper wedding attire, our wedding will be this evening."

Katherine of course was again shocked at his comments but all she could squeak out was a high pitched; "What?" "Yes my dearest Khat, I found with my four other wives that a quick and short wedding is best." She gaped like a fish as he waved goodbye to her in a manner most cheesy. "I will count the seconds until I see your lovely face again my dearest."

Her thoughts were as follows, '_His four other wives!!!!_'

~*~

Kader stood by his lord, the Tarkaan Alkey, as he bartered with one of the local slavers over the price of the two Terebinthian girls. He truly didn't have to be so argumentative since he had bought them at less than half of their usual price but still Kader loved making a good deal in his favor. At last the money changed hands and the girls were given to their new owner, as the two Calormen watched the auction.

The sun set high in the sky, and shown down with blinding heat on the two men, when a loud commotion of many horses and men in armor made their way into the market with much pageantry. The auctioneer stopped when a man cried "On your knees for it is the King of Narnia who rides among you!" Kader could see the pirate Pug grow pale as the young king came into sight and he was soon berated and he was made to give up whereabouts of the King's kidnapped companions. The bumbling man soon got a young girl, two boys, and of all things a talking mouse, but the King didn't look satisfied.

Kader and Alkey were both near enough to hear the boy king ask after the red headed woman who had also been traveling with him. The two quickly scurried off to the red ship before they were found out by Pug or the man they had just sold the Terebinthian girls who would most likely come back to claim the money he had payed for his newly freed slaves.

~*~

Drinian and Caspian both glared at Pug as he tried to explain his situation. "I sold her to a Calormen this very morning, he wore a orange turban and I believe that he mentioned that he was working for some Tarkaan who was out adventuring on a red ship. He completely ripped me off too, buying the lady and two other girls for the price of one!" He could still tell they didn't believe his wild tale, for who could outwit Pug at ripping someone off? But just then a rather miffed man who had over heard the conversation jumped in.

"He speaks the truth, I bought two Terebinthian girls from the man with the orange turban. His master spoke of getting back to his ship so not to miss his own wedding, something about his lovely redheaded bride waiting for them or something."

Drinian's boot thundered as he ran through the crowded market towards the docks.

~*~

Katherine stood on the deck with Alkey by her side as his men rushed to get the ship out into the open ocean. As he gave a flowery speech about some nonsense about how much he loved the red of her hair. She was cleaner, but she had refused to wear any of the wedding clothes that she had been offered, and no one really wanted to try and force her hand on that subject. When he tried to take her hand in his for the 10th time in five minutes, she had had enough. "Get your married hands off me!"

He looked hurt, "My sweet little flower, what is wrong!? Have I said something to offend you?" She looked back up at him, "I'm sorry it's just that this is _not_ going to work, if things were very different I admit that this might have been possible." She shouted most vehemently; "Like you being _married_ four times over, and being about 15 years too _old_, and being about as dense as a _rock_ about my feelings about this entire situation, or the fact that you _bought_ me!"

The Tarkaan looked perturbed at her mood, "So you will not marry me?" She skirted around the question as she saw a man with dark hair rushing down the dock towards were their ship had been just a few minutes before. "Do you swim?" Again he looked perturbed but thought it best to amuse his sweet little Khat. "Why no, I do not my dearest, why ever do you ask?"

"Because I'm not going marrying a freaking Pecan!"* And with that Kat jumped over the railing and made rather quick work of the 100 feet or so between the red ship and the dock. As she swam Kat could hear Tarkaan Alkey's concerned cries over her safety but he did not try to get her back. He knew that his beautiful Khat was lost to him forever.

Drinian had seen Katherine jump and was about to jump himself after her when he saw that she was a mere stones-throw away. He helped her up and Drinian would later admit that Katherine had rather resembled a cat that had just been dunked into a bucket of water and was not happy whatsoever.

The first thing out of her mouth was; "I aint marrying no dumb pecan!"

~*~

Hi all! Hope you liked the latest chapter of And Suddenly…, and I will try to get chapter 9 up soon. I'm going home for Christmas break so I should have more time, but it is amazing how things come up.

* On Pecan, Kat doesn't know what a Tarkaan is! So it is quite possible for her to say it wrong, and since she is in that type of situation I think it is find for her not to remember it correctly.

PS. I don't know if Calormens practiced polygamy other than the Tisroc (I think it is implied in the Horse and His Boy, please correct me I'm wrong), though I think that it is quite possible that a noble man such as a Tarkaan could also have multiple marriages.

PPS: Yes I know that Kader had such odd numbers flying about when he was buying Kat, but it was mainly just to confuse Pug and pay much less then the pirate would have taken. It is more how he said it than what he said.

PPPS. Thanks so much And Suddenly has had over 200 in just the past 10 days you guys are awesome!


	9. Of the Pecan and Khat

Chapter 9

After Kat had been fished out of the sea Drinian had wrapped her in his cloak and had rushed her back to the Dawn Treader docked in the Narrowhaven harbor. On the way there she had been a shivering mess, and had gone on about "not marrying a pecan". Drinian assumed that she was talking about the Tarkaan that had bought her from Pug, though you could never be too sure with the Lady Katherine. When he had carried her up the gangplank she had said rather groggily "You know Drinian you look really familiar, but I can't place it. It must be because of that beard of yours." And with that she was taken below deck not seeing Drinian pull gently at his short black beard in thought.

~*~

Meanwhile Tarkaan Alkey was distraught, after he had seen his precious, beautiful, fiery Khat had abandoned him for another man. Even at the distance he was at on his red ship he could feel the glare of the dark haired man and knew that he would most likely never see her flame red hair again. He had soon surrendered himself to moaning and sniffling, but he did not cry for a Tarkaan did not cry. Instead a Tarkaan goes to his scribe to have him pen an epic tale of love and loss that can be passed on to his children and his children's children and etcetera, forever immortalizing their not so accurate deeds and love affairs.

Luckily for the heartbroken Alkey his companion, Kader, was not only a shrewd businessman but also an aspiring poet. It is just wonderful how things like this just happen isn't it, but anyways Tarkaan Alkey knew that when he came back home everyone would expect those glorious tales of his adventures. So they defiantly would have to…expand on what had happened…and embellish a little bit.

Kadar soon was in his own room and sat down at the little hand-carved writing desk that stood in the corner. Picking up his goose-quill pen he dipped it in the little silver inkwell and started to write the following:

_The Epic Tale of the Tarkaan Alkey and the Mermaid Princess Khat_

_Inscribed for the ages by the Tarkaan Alkey's loyal servant; Kadar_

_This is part of the memoirs of Tarkaan Alkey during his stay in the exotic Lone Islands that lay many leagues away from the wondrous city on the river; Tashbaan. Where the mighty Tisroc, may he live forever, lives in his palace of many wonders and wealth. _

_One bright morning, as the sun was just starting to break the horizon as a great ball of golden fire. The Tarkaan Alkey was walking on the white sand beaches of the small island of Felimath, when he saw a vision of beauty in the breaking waves._

_It was a mermaid princess, from the deep blue depths of her father's vast underwater kingdom. Her head was crowned with vibrant red hair that cascaded in soft waves down her back, and iridescent pearls from the sea were braided into her hair by the dozens._

_The Tarkaan found out that her name was Princess Khat, Lady of the Sun over the Waters. For many days the Tarkaan Alkey courted the mermaid princess, and asked the red haired, dove-grey eyed love of his life to marry him. _

_But before she could give her answer an evil pirate of great girth and greasy black hair kidnapped the mermaid princess. Tarkaan Alkey chased the immoral pirate for five days and nights, finally catching up with them that the local slave market._

_Tarkaan Alkey and the pirate battled for hours in the squalid market place, and just after noon the next day Tarkaan Alkey finished the evil pirate off with one final thrust of his sharp sword. With one last gasp the pirate breathed his last. _

_Tarkaan Alkey freed the Lady Khat from her chains and passionately embraced her slight form. Her large grey eyes that reflected the stars and sun looked upon him lovingly as she said that she would marry him._

_But because she was a mermaid she told him that she would only able to stay with him for ten years, and after that she would have to return to her home; her father's underwater kingdom in the sea of blue and green._

_They got married the next day and Lady Khat's father the mer-king blessed them and wished that they would be fruitful for many years. And they were over the next ten years they had five healthy and strong boys and four lovely girls._

_Their boys all grew up to be great warriors and leaders of their people, and their daughters all grew tall and beautiful like their mother and were married to the Tisroc's, may he live forever, eldest son who was next in line to the throne. _

_But after ten years had passed and the Lady Khat had given Tarkaan Alkey his youngest son, she returned to the underwater kingdom that she had been born in. And she left the house of the noble Tarkann._

_And the lovers were separated for many years and they were very grieved to be apart for their love was so great for each other. Many years passed by and the Tarkaan was getting on in years and decided that he only wanted to see her one last time._

_He boarded his crimson ship with its golden yellow sail, and once again traveled to the Lone Islands. And on that same beach that he had first seen her on they were reunited and never parted again, for as long as they lived._

_And that my children is the Tale of the Lady Khat…_

Kadar set down his quill and he looked over that finished work, it had been hard and grueling work to transform stark facts into fanciful fiction but he had done it with style, even though the heroic Tarkaan could still be heard weeping over his beautiful Khat.

~*~

Katherine sneezed for the umpteenth time as Lucy handed her another tissue, blowing her nose she glanced down at said tissue and then grimaced. She groaned as she tossed it with the other used ones making Miss T. jump at the moving object. "Why do I always look? Everyone says to not look but everyone looks! It's like when someone tells you not to look down into a deep, dark, deadly canyon that you are crossing on a rickety old bridge that you know will snap in two with your next step but then you look because they mentioned it!" She rambled on as Lucy giggled, "It must be reverse psychology or something." Lucy replied, "Or perhaps someone is talking about you behind your back Kathy." Then she broke into giggles again when Kat dramatically threw her hand over her forehead, "My reputation ruined and all over a _little_ problem with being bought, almost being forced into a marriage with a man who _already_ has four wives, and catching a deadly cold from my little dip! I will most assuredly die within the hour."

Lucy shook her head smiling, "I believe you only have a normal cold Kathy, I don't think you're going to die from it." Kat winked back in response, "You never know, but I do feel much better already."

Sitting back in her chair Katherine watched the kitten chase a ribbon that Lucy had. They were in the room that she and Lucy had been given by the new Duke of the Lone Islands; Lord Bern or Duke Bern now. They had moved into the Narrowhaven Castle the day after the old Governor Gumpas had moved out. Earlier that day she had met the Duke and his lovely family. His wife Linith who had been born and raised in the Lone Islands and their three daughters who were the cutest little girls on this side of Doorn; Marian, Neleth, and two years old Amiel, and Duke Bern's sister-in-law; Blanche. Who had made it very clear that she was single to a certain Captain of the _Dawn Treader_.

Kat rolled her eyes thinking of Blanche, the only reason she was probably still single was because of how worried she was of becoming an old maid even though she was only 20. Thus she saw it fitting to figuratively throw herself under the feet of any single man, and insult any possible rivals to hopefully get ahead. Needless to say, Blanche did not have very many friends of either gender.

Katherine sneezed again and wondered if Lucy had been right, maybe someone was talking behind her back.

~*~

Unknown to Katherine at that very moment Drinian was stuck with the Lady Blanche in one of the many sitting places that overlooked the expansive gardens. How he had become captive to her presence he didn't know. What he did know was that Lady Blanche had cornered him in one of the hallways rather expertly and he couldn't think of any excuses that he could have used to leave her presence without being obviously rude. However she gave ample opportunity herself when she started to make snide, and unhidden, comments about Katherine.

"It was so brave of you to rescue that girl…what was her name?" Blanche asked in a delicately musical little voice. "Katherine Collins, and I only ended up pulling her onto the pier." "Oh, yes. Katherine Collins, a rather unusual name to be sure. I have no idea what she will do now, after being in the company of pirates and almost being forced into a marriage! I'm sure that her reputation is completely ruined." Drinian could feel his temper rising at every catty word Blanche spoke. 'How dare she impugn Katherine's honor.' But the blond continued on not knowing of the unstable ground she was treading on.

"Poor thing, no one will want her after this, though her strange ways and mannerisms don't help on that account at all." Drinian stood up abruptly startling Blanche into silence but ever the gentleman he was still polite even if he was rather…curt.

"It would be wise of you to think twice before you insult Katherine in my presence again Lady Blanche." Bowing he made a hasty withdraw. "If you will excuse me, I have some important matters to attend to, good day Lady Blanche." And with that he brusquely turned away and stalked off back to his room as he left a rather shocked and embarrassed Blanche at the settee.

It was the next morning when Drinian was shaving his off beard when he realized that his motives for doing so very vague.

~*~

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a good holiday so far, I don't really have anything else to say other than Kadar's poem isn't suppose to be accurate is the same manner of epic tales Kadar used "artistic liberties" on the whole story…like with Kat actually marrying Alkey and staying with him of years…it didn't happen!


	10. Of Dresses and Dragons

Chapter 10

Rhince was looking for the absent Captain as he made his way through the maze of passages and hallways of Narrowhaven Castle. He passed Drinian and then backed up, having a double take, finally realizing who it was. He started talking somewhat hesitantly but he couldn't contain the questions that had instantly popped into his mind.

"…Captain… what did you do to your face? And your beard for that matter!?" Drinian looked surprised at the questions, "What did I miss some?" "No…I…I just didn't know that you knew _how_ to shave! I've know you for five years and I've never seen you shave! A little trim here and there but never a shave!" Looking indignant the now beardless Captain was about to retort when they both were interrupted by a very loud and un-elegant sneeze. Turning they saw a rather red nosed and red eyed Katherine walking towards them, though on the whole she did look much better than last night at dinner. That had been just scary.

She greeted them with a very nasally and gravely tone that was most likely caused by incessant sneezing and coughing, "Good morning Rhince, morning Drinian. You shaved off your beard!" Kat looked up at him in thought, "You know, you really do look like that guy who lives next to my family. My brothers beat him up when they were in high school, almost gave him a concussion. I never saw him that often after that…. But I hear from my mom that they are friends now after finishing college strange isn't it. And by the why you have a wicked tan-line."

She quickly lost interest, mainly because of the Narnian equivalent of cold medicine was a combination of an herbal tea mixed with wine. The said mixture gave Kat a rather giddy mood and an extremely short attention span. Which in general caused her to walk about in a slightly childlike manner filled with awe and wonder, this was a fairly good thing since Katherine did not note the arsenic filled glare of the Lady Blanche that she received at every meeting they had that day. Thus any squabbling that could have happened didn't.

As Kat walked away humming a song unknown to both of the men, though we would all know it as the first bars of "Over the Rainbow", Rhince had a sudden epiphany and looked back to Drinian slyly, "Oh, _now_ I understand, and I don't think that was the response you were hoping for. Sorry about that sir… though she is right about the tan line though that is easily remedied in our line of work." Drinian looked rather shell shocked as he only could focus on one thing Katherine had said as Rhince thumped him goodheartedly on the back; "She thinks that I look a guy her brothers beat up."

~*~

After three weeks the _Dawn Treader_ was finally repaired and stocked to almost overfilling. Katherine herself thought that it was a wonder that the ship didn't sink from the weight of it all. With great fanfare they had sailed away from the Lone Islands into the uncharted unknown. The only thing other than the great fanfare and blabla of the departing ceremonies and the muckety-muck speeches that were much to in everyone's opinion, was fact that Katherine had to…dispose of her jeans and other clothes from 2009. After being dumped in the ocean twice, being kidnapped by pirates, trying to fight off said pirates, and being thrown into a hold on a stinking slave ship hadn't been kind to her clothing and they had been deemed un-wearable by Lord Bern's beautiful and very kind wife.

Linith had been the picture of kindness as she had disposed of Kat's clothes and replaced them with more suited apparel for a lady. Unfortunately Kat had been less than ecstatic over the multitude of dresses, though she had been able to beg and plead some tunics and leggings into the arrangement as well.

~*~

The first week of their voyage was lovely, with smooth sailing and clear skies. The next two weeks however were far from ideal.

The first four days were not to terrible, Kat's main complaint was the horrible crashing of the waves that sent the Dawn Treader swaying at odd angles. But later on they would wish for those first days. The storm grew in violence and ferocity and sent the ship scuttling about the wide sea like a little toy boat in a baby's bathtub, thankfully though unlike most boats in said baby's bathtubs they didn't sink in those dark and churning waters. On day 7 there was a lull early morning, the rain still fell and the winds still blew, but it was much calmer then it had been thus far. Unfortunately the storm came back with a fury and the next 5 days the ship was so badly battered that on the 10th day the proud mast was snapped off, leaving only a three foot stump left. Thankfully the only injuries were some minor cuts from the flying splinters.

The instant it had been deemed safe enough and Drinian had allowed it, Lucy and Katherine had gone on deck. Glad to get a breath of fresh air along with the long sought after sight of the now blue sky, however the sight of the missing mast struck home with both of them. The reality of what they had gone threw only now truly settling in; for even though they had hear of the goings on above deck, they had still been shelter from the sights that the rest of the sailors had been a party to. They watched as the men put together a jury-mast, lashing it to the stump of what was left of original one.

That night however the whole of crew and everyone else were called together and the situation laid out for them all. It was of course Captain Drinian who had to report the bad news. As the murmuring of conjecture and ideas of what was going to be said, quieted down in the galley Drinian started.

"I'm sure that we all know that the last few days have been challenging to say the least, but this morning I went down with Rhince to over look our remaining supplies." He paused as if he would rather not finish his speech but he continued on, "Two of our water casks have leaked and that was that. If we ration the water sensibly we will have only enough water for 12 days." The silence thickened, for everyone knew that they were at least 19 days away from the Lone Islands if not more because of the storm. Drinian turned to captain mode as he continued on; "As I can see by your faces you all know how strained our situation is, upon discussing the situation with others, we agreed that the only hope we have is to continue on with half water rations for everyone."

~*~

Kat took her cup of water from dinner down to the cabin; it had become a ritual with her over the past 8 days. Every morning and evening after eating she would take her water ration and give Miss T. part of her water. She would take one of few unbroken teacup saucers and fill up the little indentation were the cup would usually sit. The kitten would bound up and waited patiently for the water, and the instant the saucer was on the floor she would lap it up until the bottom was dry. But tonight everyone had gotten an extra ration of water in light of the news.

The issue of water had quickly become a heated one, especially when the idiot Eustace had tried to sneak water during the night earlier that week. The whole ship had been in an uproar over the entire situation, and everyone's tempers had become shorter after that.

But oh! Oh, joy of joys! Land had been sighted and they were to go out that next morning to make that blessed green island. They had dropped anchor around seven that night, but it had been decided that it would be unsafe to try and land after night fall. If only because they had no idea what type of inhabitants lived on the island.

Kat and Lucy had stayed up long into the night in excited anticipation for the morrow, apparently like everyone else. The crew had been buzzing at the crack of dawn and as the sun rose higher everyone waited in anticipation of what could be seen. As they rowed out they soon found themselves entering a clear bay encircled by high cliffs and craggy outcrops that had waterfalls coming down ever so often. At the head of the bay was a rather level area overgrown by many trees and this was cut in half by a rather substantial stream that most likely originated from the high and green mountains further inland.

They had quickly landed the two boats and everyone headed straight for the cool waters of the stream, including Kat. Unfortunately for Katherine no one had bothered to mention to her what happens to people who haven't had water of a long time and then drink a large amount of it. Though she did find out rather quickly on her own, when she was close to drinking her fill Drinian and Lucy saw her face go white before she ran for the nearest clump of bushes, vomiting is never pleasant and most likely never be.

Later on after Kat was able to keep her water down everyone sat together and had a meal, after which Caspian had the men bring over the casks and getting around to fixing the leaking ones. While others went about finding a tree to make a replacement mast, the next few hours were a blur and it wasn't until Kat and Lucy had been helping with washing the dirty clothes for about an hour when someone noticed that Eustace was no were in sight. By dinner time they knew that something must be wrong and after finishing dinner everyone had gone out to look for him.

Kat followed Lucy as she cried out; "Eustace! Eustace! Where are you?" Lucy turned back to them with a worried look on her face; "He must be very lost if he can't hear us. Do you think he might be injured, or could he have fallen into a hole, or captured by savages." Luckily she didn't hear Drinian's whispered; "Or eaten by wild beasts, but I don't think our luck is that good." Unfortunately for him Kat did hear and elbowed him if only to try and keep Lucy from panicking at the thought, but she was too late to hinder Rhince's comments. "Good riddance if he has!"

Surprisingly it was Reepicheep who was the first to chide them; "Master Rhince, I have never heard you speak a work that became you less, then just now. I can hardly call the creature my friend, but he is a relation of the good Queen. And while he is part of our fellowship it concerns our honor to find him or avenge his death if need be."

The men stood in quiet guilt at the mouse's admonishment, and it was Caspian who broke the awkward silence. "Of course we'll look for him, but that's the nuisance of it. It means getting together a search party, and other bothersome problems." It was soon decided to continue looking in the morning to keep anyone else from getting lost.

The next afternoon there was still no sign of Eustace, though Lucy was even more worried about him after Drinian had brought back word about the dead dragon at the lake. The only thing that is barely worth mentioning is that during the night Kat and Lucy were awaken by a quiet discussion about what to do about the dragon that had been sighted.

~*~

The rest of the night was spent in silent worry; the only thing that could have been funny under very different circumstances was Reepicheep's insane comment that he would go and battle the dragon by himself, this was quickly shot down by both Caspian and Drinian.

As the sun started to peek out over the horizon their little band gathered together forming a curricular shape, with Katherine and Lucy at its center with Reepicheep on Lucy's shoulder. As they marched with swords drawn they came to the end of the wooded area and there directly in front of them, between them and the Dawn Treader was a scaly dragon.

Kat couldn't believe her eyes, sure she had also been told there was a dragon on the beach along with everyone else but seeing such a thing is something else entirely, but back to the story. She only got out a forced "D-Dragon?!" before falling over in an ungraceful faint. If Drinian hadn't been focused on said dragon like everyone else, he would have thought to try and catch Kat before she had hit the sandy beach with a thud. But his attention was one the dragon so he didn't even think to catch her.

~*~

I apologize for my tardiness, a lot of things came up and I haven't had as much time for this story as I would like to. I think have the order of events down right, but if not I apologize... again.

And it is a little longer than usual mainly because it's chapter 10!!!! And because I'm sorry that I was a lazy bum over the holidays.

Thanks for reading and please review!


	11. Dragonifacation and Drinian

Chapter 11

Katherine started to stir again, grimacing at a small sharp pain in her shoulder from landing directly onto a rather pointed seashell. She was still dizzy from her little faint and the conversation between the others above her was still a little garbled.

But the small wound was soon the last thing on her mind when she had cracked opened her eyes and immediately focused on lovable, saintly, little Lucy kissing a huge, scaly, monstrosity of a dragon.

Kat sat up with a start yelling; "Lucy don't you kiss that thing! You don't know where it's been!"

Edmund responded, quickly trying to calm Katherine. "Don't worry Kathy, it's alright. It's Eustace!"

"More to the point, this isn't North Carolina and they're cousins!" She paused realizing, finally, the ramifications of what Edmund had just said. "But… that's a dragon…and the last time I checked I'm pretty sure that Eustace was a little boy… not a _dragon_."

At this statement she was interrupted by Drinian, who had a very important observation; "Katherine, you're bleeding." He knelt done behind Kat and started to try and inspect her wounded back. "Doesn't it hurt?"

"No… not at all- ouch!" Kat blinked back a few stray tears at the sudden pain where Drinian had been probing. "_That_ hurt though! Don't touch it!"

Drinian quickly removed his hands only to put them back in place, firmly trying to stem the bleeding that had already started to run down her back in a bright red streak. Drinian looked at Caspian and found that the young king had everything under as much control as could be expected considering the situation, and with that reassurance he made one smooth motion and had Katherine in his arms, much to her surprise and embarrassment.

"Drinian! Put me down this instance, I can still walk. It's my back not my legs that's hurt!" With just one stern look from Drinian, Kat was reduced to muttering under her breath as Drinian called Rhince over to help as he carried Katherine back to the camp.

It took only a few moments for his long legs to find their way to her and Lucy's tent, and set her down onto the unmade cot, with Rhince following closely behind with a small medical kit. With a steady hand he assessed the situation, and found that before proceeding any further the shell would have to be removed first, before even considering cleaning out the wound. Which he made quite obvious:

"Alright Kat, I'm going to have to take out the seashell before peeling the tunic away from the wound." Kat looked crossly at his statement, before Drinian started to try and distract her from Rhince's work.

"So… isn't that something? Eustace turning into a dragon I mean. I've never heard of such a thing, well other than the stories of a foreign prince being turned into a donkey. And there were those horror stories my nursemaid told me of a bad little boy who got turned into a fish and eaten by…"

He trailed off when he saw Katherine's face begin to grimace in a silent scream before she got out one word; "Fu…udge."

The tears overflowed from her grey eyes as she grasped the closest thing, Drinian's hand. He tried to comfort her by awkwardly patting her hands, as Rhince carefully cut away the part of her tunic that was over her wound. Taking a rag he quickly poured some witch-hazel onto it, before applying it on to the oozing gash. Kat felt a cool sensation of tingling on her back, before it turned into a slight sting.

As the bleeding subsided Rhince started to stitch the wound up, much to Kat's discomfort and Drinian's. Instead of almost cursing she opted to wring the life out of Drinian's hand. He held up quite valiantly until about the second stitch, when he made a slight grunt of discomfort at the amount of pressure that Katherine was capable of applying. By the end of it all Katherine had three stitches, and Drinian had a very sore hand.

~*~

It was later that night as Lucy was helping Kat re-bandage the wound, when she had a sudden epiphany that her cordial that would heal it right up. Which it did, Kat tried to crane her head to see were the scar should have been, and didn't see anything but smooth skin.

"Wow! Lucy, what's in that stuff?!"

The young girl gave a little smile along with her response. "It's a cordial made from the juice of fire flowers that only grow on the mountains of the sun."

Kat gave her a deadpanned look, "You sounded so geeky right then… like you were talking about World of Warcraft, or Lord of the Rings Online… or something."

"I'm not really sure what that is… but I'm glad your shoulder is better now. Good night Kathy."

"Night, Lucy."

~*~

The next morning as she was sitting in front of her breakfast, as Drinian came up behind her and inquired about her health.

"So how is your back feeling today Katherine?"

She looked up in surprise, "Its fine, _just _fine."

Drinian narrowed his eyes at her very quick answer and her off put manner. "If it is bothering you Kat, you need to have it looked at. You can't let things like this just go unattended." He moved towards her, "Let me look at it." Katherine had an indignant look on her face, miffed that he didn't believe her.

"I told you that it's just fine! You really don't need to worr-" She was cut off by Drinian leaning over her, brushing her slightly grown out red hair out of the way, and endeavored to check Katherine's now nonexistent wound. That he was convinced had started to fester and become infected, that she didn't want to bother anyone by bringing it to light.

Author's Note: Later Drinian would realize that his logic had been sadly lacking right at that moment. The key word in that sentence is _later_… which works in my favor in coming up with a nice little awkwardly cute moment, but enough from me about the subject. Back to the story!

Drinian knew something was wrong when he couldn't find the little row of stitches on Kat's back; he tried to recover by stating the obvious. "The stitches… are not there anymore."

She looked away from him quite annoyed with the entire situation as she removed his large callused hand from the collar of her tunic. "Very observant of you _Captain Obvious_," she said sarcastically. "Lucy took one look at it last night and had a wonderful thought! Maybe she could use the healing cordial so I wouldn't have to deal with the stitches and risk of infection! And what a wonderful idea it was, if only it had been thought of before I had been stitched up." She turned back to Drinian to glare accusingly at this last statement. Which he wilted under, knowing that he could have saved Katherine from much of pain during yesterday's situation.

"I am sorry, Katherine. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have remembered about the cordial, and spared you from such pain." His face was a picture of regret, which was eating away quickly at Kat's conscious. Needless to say her annoyance was soon taken over by guilt for causing the young Captain such distress.

"Don't worry about it Drinian…" She paused, trying to organize her words properly. "All's well that ends well. It all worked out in the end." He smiled at her attempt to smooth over the situation.

"I'm glad that you see it that way Katherine," he said softly as he gave her hands a gentle squeeze before returning to his duties. Leaving Katherine still sitting by her barely touched breakfast, as a light blush crossed her cheeks.

~*~

For the rest of the day Katherine didn't really have another chance to talk with Drinian, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to either. However, thankfully for us readers he caught up with her, well after the sunset. She was sitting on the ground with her back to the warm and dragonified Eustace, who had become, what some would say, a giant hot-water bottle for everyone.

Katherine had been by herself (other than Eustace but he was dragonified and couldn't really carry on any conversation), and Drinian had come up alongside her and sat down. He watched her studious expression for several minutes before breaking the comfortable silence between them.

"What are you thinking about Katherine?"

She kept looking up at the sky as she answered, "The stars… they're very different where I come from. Not only are they brighter here, but also in different patterns. There's nothing that I recognize! No Belt of Orion, the Big Dipper or even the Little Dipper… the only one that is anything close is the North Star that you have."

"You mean the Spear Head?" Drinian pointed to the said star to provide emphasize to his statement. Kat's head bobbed up and down in response, clearly eager to hear more. "Well that's the Pole Star, which is always in the north, and if you look a bit down and to the right you'll see the star that tops the constellation called The Ship." Drinian watched Katherine's face as she squinted at the skies only for her expression to bloom into a wide smile.

"I see it!" She exclaimed like a giddy child, "Those six bright stars make up the outline of the hull, right?" She elbowed him good-naturedly, "Come on Drinian, what are some others!?" He sat showing Kat other constellations such as The Leopard and The Hammer, until their conversation drifted away from the skies to slightly more personal matters.

"So you have three older brothers?"

Kat smiled at the memory of her older siblings. "Yep, George, James and then William. George is married with two kids, who are cute little horrors who can get away with murder. And James is to be married next year…" She trailed off, obviously saddened by the separation from her family, she quickly turned the subject onto Drinian. "So what about you? Have any older sibling who teased you to death, or younger ones that you tortured?"

"Just one younger brother, we would always get in such trouble together." He laughed deeply at his well loved childhood memories. "We were such horrible children when we were younger; always trying to give our nannies fits. One time we put salamanders in her personal underclothing." Smiling ruefully Drinian continued. "We got whipped good for that one."

Kat started to laugh hard, "You! Mister By-the-book? Whipped!? You really must have been a scoundrel as a child!" She continued snickering; "Salamanders in the knickers indeed! If only I had thought of that one."

They laughed together over other such childhood exploits before settling into another comfortable silence. Drinian squeezed her hand, which until now she hadn't realized he had been holding; she had been so comfortable with holding onto his larger and warm hand with her smaller one. Drinian looked into her eyes, wanting to say something.

"Katherine…" His voice trailed off as he slowly bent down closer to her.

Suddenly there was a large whooshing sound followed by a well aimed stream of smoke at Drinian, reminding the couple of Eustace's existence. Katherine blushed at the look Eustace gave them which seemed to say "Not on me you two."

~*~

I would apologize in every language on the earth for my extreme tardiness…but…I only know English. So… I'm Sorry!

Anyways to be completely honest the only reason I have Drinian helping Kat with her wound was to have him carry her and hold her hand… but it makes it all the funnier when Lucy just gets her cordial out and heals it immediately. *Evil laugh*

But one last thing… Eustace + dragonified = AWSOME!


	12. A Real Boy!

Chapter 12

A few days later Kat was getting up to go to breakfast. Ever since the night when Drinian had almost kissed her, they had been avoiding each other like two twitterpated teenagers, much to the amusement of Rhince and others.

She shuffled out of the tent, having seen that Lucy was still sleeping soundly in the half-light of the morning. Katherine paused for a few minutes, taking in the morning air as she watched the sunrise on the water. Stretching as she walked to where breakfast was being served she saw Eustace and waved good morning as she passed him.

The rest of the crew had already started eating and the makeshift table was buzzing with conversation; conversation that Kat didn't pay any attention to as she piled food onto her plate. It was about ten minutes later when Drinian and Edmund noticed Katherine's fork suddenly stop in midair. The ham wobbled precariously for an instant before falling off of the fork and into Kat's lap, or would have fallen into her lap…if she had still been sitting down.

But Kat had jumped from the table and was soon seen running back down the way she had come. Within a few minutes she had Eustace in her sights and after that it was only 5.7 seconds before Katherine had glomped him.

"Eustace! You're a real boy!"

The newly un-dragonified Eustace looked rather perturbed if not embarrassed at all the attention that Kat was showering upon him. Rather like the over-affectionate crazy aunt of the family that everyone should have. Dragging Eustace down the pathway back again to where everyone else was Kat made a loud announcement.

"Eustace is normal again!"The looks on their faces where priceless but not for the reason she thought.

Rhince nervously cleared his throat as everyone else looked at her in a stunned silence. "Katherine…that's the only thing we have been talking about this morning."

It had been around nine days from when they had landed on Dragon Island when they crew departed again, with their mast repaired and repainted. The only other occurrence of importance was the fate of the Lord Octesian's arm ring. When Eustace had been a dragon he had had it stuck on his scaly arm, but now that he was a human again Eustace wanted nothing to do with the thing. So by random chance it was thrown by Caspian and landed on a cliff face, stuck on a projection of rock, no one could climb up or down to get at the solid gold band.

It was only early the next morning that they came upon another island; it was low to the sea and very green with overgrown grass. Its only inhabitants were a few goats and many wild rabbits. The only evidence that it might have been something other than abandoned was the crumbling remains of some stone huts, and the fire blackened ground. There were also other ominous signs of pirate's work with scattered bones and many broken weapons.

The only other thing they found when leaving was a little coracle, or skin boat. It was only about four feet long and had been obviously made for a child or a dwarf because the people of the island could have been dwarves. It had been carried aboard the _Dawn Treader_ because it was just the right size for Reepicheep and one could never tell when something like that would come to be useful.

They had been sailing for a couple of hours more when Lucy pointed out several strange rocklike formations. Within a few minutes it was soon determined that they were hardly fixed rock formations when they started to slither towards the _Dawn Treader_. It was only then did the crew realize that their new foe was a deadly sea-monster like that of old-wives-tales, but this monster was all too real.

Much too late Drinian ordered the crew to turn the ship in the opposite direction but by then the beast was upon them. With lighting speed its huge coils had engulfed the now seemingly tiny ship. And its giant head, rather like a horse but without ears and extremely large liquid yellow eyes that squinted in the harsh light of day. The its long streamline body was clearly made for speed in murky underwater depths, and was a dark green with hints of orange or red glimmering on some scales while other places where patches of a solid purple-brown.

For several long moments everything seemed to freeze in place as Kat stood stuck in place. From the smallest drop of water frozen in midair to the men rushing around as Drinian and Caspian tried to keep everyone from completely panicking, it all was like a surreal photograph with everything in focus. But soon the instant was broken by Eustace.

Without thought for his own safety he bravely, if not impulsively, rushed the beast with a borrowed sword that soon broke on the creature's tough scales. But in that instant Reepicheep had a preverbal light-bulb moment, and began to try and push the scaly monster off the ship and back into the sea.

It took several moments for everyone else to understand what the valiant mouse was trying to do, but when they did there was a mad dash towards the great coils. Then all coherent thoughts were broken down into straining muscles, less then polite words and groans. But foot by foot, inch by blessed inch the huge coil started to move. Over the _Dawn Treader's_ hull and to her stern, it was nearly off when the coil got so small it snapped the decorated dragon's tail right off.

In that same instant a stiff wind caught those purple sails and sent the _Dawn Treader_ and her occupants out of harm's way. Fortunately for them the great sea beast was apparently very dull because it didn't notice that its prey had escaped. Instead it doubled back along itself nuzzling around trying to find what it thought it had destroyed.

As the stiff wind pushed the freed ship away from her doom Kat and Drinian found themselves leaning exhaustedly against each other, as they watch everyone else celebrate with a sudden burst of adrenaline. As they watched on Drinian boldly slipped his hand around Katherine's smaller one. He was surprised when she gently squeezed his hand reassuringly as her smiling gaze met his.

To: lbkrupa0 and Countess of Western March – Thanks for the posts they really got me going again


	13. Water, water everywhere

Chapter 13

For three days and nights all was calm skies and the sailing smooth after their encounter with the great sea serpent. This left time for the men to repair the Dawn Treader as much as possible, but even after that their beloved little ship was still looked rather battered. On the fourth day the sea began to boil as a storm cast its dark shadow on the ocean behind them but Rhince in the crow's nest called out that there was land on the port side. They anchored in a bay for the night and the next morning Kat, Drinian, Reepicheep, Eustace, Lucy, Edmund and some others piled into the rowboat with the empty water casks.

Kat giggled at Drinian as she helped him row when the four younger passengers decided that they should go in the other direction so they could uses the trees to keep off the now pouring rain. It was not like they were half way to the other perfectly fine stream or anything, oh wait they were. Drinian looked a little more than annoyed at the request but he ordered the boat be turned around anyways. Either way they were going to get rained on.

When they finally got to the shore and had each drank their fill from the cold stream fed from the mountains. The children and Reepicheep went exploring the island as Kat stayed with Drinian and the others filling the casks. She struggled to lift one of the smaller wooden barrels, but even the empty barrel was so heavy she attempted to not drop it.

After getting half way to where they were putting all the barrels her hold on the wooden cask started to slip. Just in time Drinian was suddenly in front of her, taking the barrel from her now trembling arms.

"You need help my lady?" Drinian said while his eyes were filled with laughter as the corners of his mouth twitched with barely concealed mirth.

Rubbing her aching arms she smiled sheepishly at her once again rescuer.

"Why thank you kind sir," She replied in a coy manner, and batting her lashes at Drinian, feeling uncharacteristically flirtatious as they walked side by side. "You'll always save me wont you?"

Drinian's ears and neck flushed red; more use to her antics than blatant flirting.

"Well you always are getting into trouble; I don't know how you ever managed before me."

They both smiled as he shifted the weight of the barrel, "We'll finish up with this soon, and you can rest if you want."

Knowing it was more of a request than a question, she walked away towards a shaded part of the sandy riverbank. Turning around to blow a kiss at Drinian if only so she could see how flustered he got as he hurried to help fill the water casks as the crewmen made some good natured jests at his expense.

Katherine boosted herself onto a large fallen tree and watched as the men finished with filling the water casks. Not that long ago she would have chafed at being singled out because she was a woman. She understood now that the men did not see her as someone weaker than them, but a person they wanted to protect from what they could. And so far on this voyage there had not been much that they could control. She might be still quite a feminist at heart but with three older brothers she was use to a bit of over protectiveness. There had been more than one time when she started liking a guy at school and he would be soon making every effort to stay away from her after her brothers would have a "talk" with him.

The crew quickly and efficiently filled all the barrels and stored them in the boat. So all they had to do was wait for the young adventurers to come back. They had only been waiting for about an hour before they spotted the royals and Reepicheep headed down the grassy hills toward them. Strangely they were not quite as gay and happy as they had been but no one ever really thought to enquire even after they had returned to the Dawn Treader. Even when Caspian did speak on the matter only saying that the island had been struck with a curse that had killed one of the lost lords, and that it would forever be known by the forbidding name of Deathwater Island.


	14. The Invisible Fifty

Chapter 14

After a long while again at sea, and when the men had just started to whisper that they had finally come to a sea with no end the lookout saw another island straight ahead from the _Dawn Treader's _course. This island unlike Deathwater Island, this new piece of land sat low to the sea with only some hills and no mountains to be seen. This in itself was not that strange, since many islands of sandier makeup do not rise any extraordinary height from the ocean because of their generally more unstable nature compared to say a volcanic island. What was strange was that upon making harbor in a wide and clear bay they could see that what had been thought to be a random grouping of trees looked to be more organized in nature.

When they finally had disembarked from the rowboats they found the grass not to be of a coarse beach variety but to be a well manicured lawn that any home owner would be proud to claim. The trees were also well looked after with evidence of them being trimmed into appealing yet often strange shapes like one would find in a fanciful garden. They lined a crushed stone pathway like strange sentry's and off in the distance they could see what looked to be a house made of stone.

Everyone was very eager to explore and see if anyone did indeed live in that house with its many windows that Kat and the children all thought looked a great deal like an English house you might stumble upon in the countryside of England, not on a strange island in Narnia. And it was a strange island for all the care that had been given it they had yet to see anyone and had only heard the coos of birds hidden well in the trees.

"I do declare this is the strangest place we have been yet." Eustace said to Kat as he shaded his squinting eyes from the trying to see the house far down the lane. They had grown to be like siblings more and more as the journey progressed, perhaps in part because they both where in Narnia for the first time unlike Edmund and Lucy. They were both able to relate better with each other even with their gap of ages and the times they had been raised in. "Why would there be an English house here when no one seems to be living here?"

"I have no idea." Replied Kat, "But I can't really say anything is strange anymore since we're in a different world or reality or whatever you want to call it. Who knows maybe we will find a Tesco on the next island." They both tried to keep straight-faced at the look Drinian had given them both as if they were crazy but they both broke down into fits of giggles as Kat tried to describe supermarkets and long checkout lines to a very confused Narnian. All the while no one saw that Lucy had been accidently felt behind as she tried to pry a stone out of her shoe.

It could have only been only ten minutes or so when Lucy had run red-faced and out of breath back to the group who had just made it to the courtyard of the house. If it had been anyone but Lucy who quickly forced out that an invisible army that was planning one cutting them all off from the ship they would not have been believed. But the fear in her eyes and her honest nature was all everyone needed to accept her story as true.

"So you have no idea what type of creatures they are Lu?" Asked Edmund gently, making sure to say it in a harsh way that would not make his already emotional sister cry. It was times like these that Katherine saw how grown up Edmund was for his age, and perhaps got a glimpse of the King of Narnia he was.

Even as Ed managed to calm his sister Kat could see the men were shaken at the news and even the brave Reepicheep looked taken aback at the thought of battling invisible foes.

Lucy sniffled back a few tears that had welled up in her blue eyes before responding. "How could I know what they are when I could not even _see_ them? I didn't even hear the noise of their feet walking around only these ghastly thumping and thudding as they went away."

When Reepicheep tried to lighten the mood with a half-hearted attempt at humor, Kat did not even she the slightest twitch of humor on Drinian's now firmly set face. She could tell he was worried about the situation and doing his best to think of a strategy to get everyone safely back on the ship. Caspian had suggested signaling the ship to another part of the bay and leaving the rowboats entirely, but that was quickly shot down because the water was much too shallow and they would risk beaching the Treader.

At the talk of creeping away Reepicheep seemed to gather his gusto back. "Your Majesties and you Sir Drinian all know as I that it is folly to think that we could even think for one moment that we could avoid an invisible enemy with any amount of creeping and skulking. If they truly want to fight us then there is nothing that we can do to avoid such a confrontation, even now they could have surrounded us silently. I for one will sooner face them than to be caught by my tail unawares."

"I would have to agree with Reep, unfortunately I don't see any other way." said Edmund.

"Also if Rhince and the others see us all fighting they will come to our rescue right?" Lucy said with hope coloring her voice.

But Eustace interjected pointing out that they would not think anything of it if their enemies where invisible, that they might think they were just swinging their swords around for fun when they where instead fighting for their lives. A rather unfortunate thought to be sure.

Kat could feel her knees go weak at the thought of fighting in a battle; she had never even had archery lessons let alone knew anything about how to handle a sword. As all the men and boys got out their swords and even Lucy had her bow and quiver, while Katherine had nothing to defend herself with. As she contemplated arming herself with a large rock or branch or really anything for that matter, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Drinian's concerned yet a battle hardened eyes looking down at her. He handed her the long dagger from his belt, silently making sure her grip was correct on the handle.

"Make sure to stay close behind me." Was all he said to her before gathering up everyone together and march over to the beach, the great green lawns where completely empty and peaceful looking but it did nothing to dispel the tension in the air. When they arrived at the boats where undisturbed for an instant they thought that Lucy might have imagined it all.

"No further now." A voice called out. "No further I say. We need to talk to you, no need to try and fight us. We have more than fifty of us and we are all well armed."

"That's right Chief. You all can depend on him, he tells the truth." Came a chorus of voices all around them.

"I do not see these fifty warriors," observed Reepicheep.

"That's right, that's right," said the Chief voice. "You don't see us, and why not?" He asked rhetorically, "Because we are invisible of course."

Caspian told Reepicheep to stay quiet before talking to the chief. "What do you invisible want with us? What would we have we done to gain your enmity?"

"There will be no harm to you all if the little girl will help us with a problem. The other one is much too old."

"What would you have me do?" Lucy asked always ready to help others no matter the situation.

It would not be until after having dinner with these strange invisible creatures and everyone had been given rooms to sleep in the large house. After having breakfast Lucy had disappeared up stairs to free the Dufflepuds from their curse of invisibility. She was gone for many hours and eventually they started quietly talking about how they might rescue her from this vindictive magician if that worst happened.

However when she dashed down the stairs and promptly ran into her brother, they all assumed the worst.

"It's alright," she shouted. "The magician's a brick- and I've seen him- Aslan." And with that she had streaked out of the room and gone out to the garden like a streak of wind. Ed bound right after her and everyone else soon followed and came upon the strange sight of the Duffles. They where odd creatures, they looked like dwarves with their round bearded faces and they worn the most outlandish clothing but they only have one gigantic foot. They bounced on their foot as if they were using pogo sticks.

After reassuring the rest of the crew that they were indeed alive, even if they had had a rather strange past twelve hours, and ended the night off with eating and exchanging stories.

*Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer (think Wal-Mart) founded in 1919 and notorious for long queue lines. So thus I find it possible that both a modern visitor to England and a boy from the 1940's would both know about these stores.


	15. Her Innermost Fear

Chapter 15

After the magician, who they had found was called Coriakin, had fixed the _Dawn Treader's_ figure head of the serpent with his magical powers they set sail again. They had learned that the remaining lords where Revilian, Argoz, Mavramorn and Rhoop leaving Lord Restimar to be the one they had found on Deathwater. They had passed thru Coriakin's Island seven years before and had not turned back to his knowledge.

The closer that they got to the end of their journey Katherine had this nagging thought in the back of her mind that these times would quickly be over. She however pushed such thoughts aside, deciding to ignore the fact that at some point she would either have to choose which world she would live in or maybe not even be able to go home at all. She did not know and like most people it was easier to ignore the potential problem. Even if she was to be given a choice how could she even choose between her family and friends on earth or her new friends and the new life she could lead in Narnia. To everyone else she remained the same bubbly and at times argumentative Kat, but there were instances that uncertainty veiled her features.

...

After several more days of traveling south they sighted what looked like to be an enormous black mountain rising out of the sea. For two days they made towards the island and it did not look as if they were making any headway until the third day, all of a sudden they where upon it and saw that it was not an island at all, nor was it a mist either.

"Well I say I don't rightly now what that is," Commented Caspian as he absently stroked at the blond fuzz on his chin that was looking like the start of a beard.

"It is just darkness, not a mist that I have ever seen." Said Drinian in response, obviously calling upon all of his knowledge of the ocean he had acquired from his years at sea.

Lucy who had been staring along with everyone else with her head supported with both her hands. "Looks rather like the entrance of a train tunnel to me."

"Why it really does!" Exclaimed Eustace, "That is why it seems so familiar."

Drinian just ignored the reference that she had made, unlike Caspian who was always interested to learn more about the other world known as Earth. Instead he put his two-cents in hoping that the young king would take his advice, "I cannot advise that we go into this darkness or whatever it may be."

"Why would anyone want to go in there," Kat agreed. "You can't even see a few inches in there. It's more like dark cavern like Lucy said."

But of course Reepicheep just had to be the voice against what he would see as cowardice. "And why should that be a reason that we should not journey into the darkness? I hope that this company of noble and fit people has turned into cowards because they are afraid of a little darkness."

Lucy and Kat both sighed in resignation knowing that the boys and men would not let themselves be called cowards by anyone. Reepicheep could be a master at manipulation when he wanted to and that was how this situation was heading.

Thankfully Drinian was still unconvinced, "And what use would it do us to plow right into this darkness? We would not even be able to navigate properly if there are any dangers."

"Use?" replied the mouse. "Use, my good Captain? If you mean keeping our bellies full or our purses, I will admit to it being no use at all. But did we set sail to find things of usefulness or to seek honor and adventure? Here is as great as an adventure that I have ever heard of and you all want to turn back at our moment of finding honor."

Kat could hear a few sailors say a few choice places honor should go, but the mouse had convinced the one who really mattered.

"Oh, bother Reepicheep. I almost we had left you at home at times." Caspian said shaking his head. "If you put it that way, I suppose we have to go on."

"Your Majesty will at least order lights?" asked Drinian as he rubbed his forehead as if to ward off a headache.

"By all means," said Caspian. "See to it Captain."

...

With three large lanterns set at the stern, prow and masthead as well torches amidships and everyone was at their posts dressed in armor and weapons at the ready. Lucy was on the fighting-top with the other archers, the boys where all at the bow with Rynelf who was measuring the depth while Katherine had stayed back with Drinian at the tiller.

As they inched forward the darkness slowly cloaked the _Dawn Treader_ in darkness. Soon even the lanterns and torches hardly made a difference once they were fully encroached by the darkness. Kat gripped onto the railing just in front of the ship's wheel, feeling like they had just entered a gigantic mouth of a beast that wanted to devour them. For the longest time the only sounds that permeated the suddenly cold air where the creaking of the timber and ropes and the slight splash from the oars. No one could be sure how long they had been going on but everyone had developed a horrible case of goose-bumps.

However it was the sudden inhuman screams that sent shivers up everyone's spines. Soon enough they had pulled up a scraggly looking man from the black waters, he was shouting about this being where dreams came true. The sailors seemed to like this idea mentioning some nice dreams they had had before mostly involving beautiful woman and wealth that they wish they had. It was then that the still dripping man corrected his previous statement.

"Not day dreams you fools, nightmares," he said the whites of his eyes so wide they seemed to take over his face.

It was then that Kat realized something; there was not as many people on deck as there had been before. Slowly but surely they were all disappearing. Every time she turned around someone else was gone. Soon even the Pevensies, Rhince and Reepicheep were gone. Kat got a huge lump in her throat; Drinian could not be gone to. He just couldn't be gone like ever one else.

She rushed up the steps to the bridge only to find the ship's wheel stood alone, she sunk down to her knees. She could just feel that on this whole ship, this whole ocean, this world that she was completely and utterly alone.

...

Drinian felt like he was the only one trying to keep it together on this ship of fools, in the back of his mind he could feel the fear creeping up like a wolf hunting its prey but he shoved it away. He had to steer the Dawn Treader out of this black void before people started jumping off the ship. For hours it seems too dragged on as sweat dripped down his face, he could feel it soaking his tunic as well. Just as even he was starting to lose hope and give into the hidden fear inside himself, he saw Lucy in the crow's nest pointing and shouting at something.

It was a bird, an albatross to be precise, but this was no ordinary albatross for from it shone a bright light. He felt as if he was grasping at straws as he steered the boat toward the bird, but he had no better idea.

...

As the darkness started to fade, everyone started to come to and realize that whatever they thought to have been true no long was. Like a mist the dark island evaporated around them, they were all coming back to their senses. Kat came out of her nightmare as if suddenly waking up, the dark island had found her deepest fear, and it shook her to the core.


End file.
